hair algae on the back of tank

TheEngineer · Aug 30, 2015

Turbo snails are great, IMO. You only have the growth on the back glass, none on your rocks? I was thinking maybe your light is shifted to the back of your tank. Is it?

big deddy · Aug 30, 2015

I do have the light more to the back. Never thought of that. Also coraline is starting to show up on back glass. Will this help to rid the gha? Also considered a lawnmower blenny

TheEngineer · Aug 30, 2015

Coraline will stop the algae in the places that it is growing. The hair algae can't get a grip on it.

I agree with the other advice you are getting. Buying something to eat the algae is likely to give you other problems. The algae is there because you aren't exporting nutrients fast enough either through biological or mechanical filtration. A good cleanup crew will help keep it in check, but you need to do the others if you are going to stay ahead of it.

Do you have test results to post?

big deddy · Aug 30, 2015

All I have is api master kit. PH is 8.2, nitrates showing 0ppm, nitrites seem oppm. Haven't checked phosphates. I just can't see the amount of food I feed causing any problems. I feed about enough flakes to be eaten in less than a minute. I feed flakes 1 day and frozen the next. That order and only feed 1 time per day. When I feed frozen I feed about 1/3 of the little cubes. Maybe it's just from needing to replace the Rodi media / lighting schedule.

big deddy · Aug 30, 2015

I believe if I could get my chaeto to take off it would help to. I have tried a couple different lights on it and still not getting the results I wanted

TheEngineer · Aug 30, 2015

It may not be the amount you feed. The fish are a source of nutrients as are you rocks and sand. Live rock tends to leach nutrients into the water forever in my experience. Check your phosphates, that's what tends to encourage algae growth. Also check your RO/DI water. You could be adding a lot of nutrients each time you top off.

I know some people swear by chaeto, but for me I've never had any luck with it. So any advice I give you wouldn't be based on my own experiences.

thehammer1985 · Aug 30, 2015

Hey do yourself a big favor. Buy magnesium ,calcium , phosphate test kits . Calcium is important for the snails and marine life and it is also a buffering salt . Phosphate will show you where your nutrients are and magnesium so you can start dosing it . Dosing mag up to 1500 ppm has been shown to help get rid of hair algea. I agree with the above turbo snails are voracious algea eaters but make sure your rocks and corals are secured because they are bulldozers. Also I would still drop the lighting cycle. I mean it's your tank so you can chose which way you wanna fight this but do yourself a favor don't justt take it from me do some research and see what others are saying about lighting cycles. For the little if any extra coral growth you'd get is it worth it to be plagues with gha

thehammer1985 · Aug 30, 2015

Cheato does exports nutrients but not to the excess that you may think. Yes it does consume phosphates and nitrates but not at such a steady pace that it will get rid of problems . I look at chrato as kind of a I have low nutrients already but I still need something to suck up the miniscule amounts.

big deddy · Aug 30, 2015

I will cut back on the lights. Well I will have new led lights tomorrow, and I will replace Rodi media. Still thinking of a lawnmower blenny.

thehammer1985 · Aug 30, 2015

What kind of leds . And have you read about light acclimation? Do yourself a favor and look that up. Also even if it's just a hand held tds meter get one you may not need to replace it but that'll let you know. And down the road in the future it'll let you know when it's going bad. I'm not gonna tell ya not to get the lawnmower blenny but iMO I think you'd be better off figuring out what's causing this first before you add to the bioload

TheEngineer · Aug 30, 2015

big deddy said:
Still thinking of a lawnmower blenny.

I hear ya'. Hair algae is one of those things we all wish there was a quick fix for. Unfortunately there isn't one. The TechM approach is probably about the fastest you're going to find. You just have to be careful and test, test, test when you are doing it.

Reefing Madness · Aug 30, 2015

big deddy said:
Sump is 30 gallon breeder. Chaeto doesn't grow very much. I think it's my light causing that. Chaeto still green just not much growth. I have a small pump in the fuge to keep movement on Chaeto. There is about a pound of Chaeto. Will look into gfo, lanthanum.

Is the compartment full of chaeto? Does it have room for growth? When was the last time you had to cut it back?